By The Red Hook WaterStories team
A building boom was expected for Red Hook Point in 1851. New streets were being constructed and a cotton mill was planned. Cotton was grown in the South but since the opening of the Atlantic Docks, in 1845, shiploads were coming to Red Hook to...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Labor strikes by shipyard workers, maritime workers, and many others were common in the years following WWII. In 1949, The Brooklyn Eagle reported on a union walkout at the Todd Shipyard in Erie Basin, after eight riggers were fired for...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Image of employees at the H.W. Ramberg Company plant on Van Dyke
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Grain elevators once towered in Atlantic Basin, as can be seen in the etching published in Harper's Magazine in 1871. They were used to transfer grain from ship to warehouse or ship to ship. They frequently unloaded the canal boats that...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Merchant Stores had a large hydraulic press that it used to compress cotton bales. In 1891, people complained that when "exhaust steam was blown off it made a noise that sounded like a cross between the bellow of a bull and the scream of a tiger...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Until 2007, a towering, distintive icon of Red Hook was here and was so visible across the harbor that captain's used it as a navigation aid: the conical silo of the sugar refinery. The entire refinery was demolished that year, levelling an...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
The India Wharf Brewing Company was formed in 1880 to brew beer, ale, and porter. Their initial capitalization was $1,000,000. According to Wine and Spirit Gazette of that year, the company was formed with a plan to share profits with liquor dealers...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
The Red Hook Building Company was the brainchild of Col. Daniel Richards, a man who grew up in upstate New York. When the Erie Canal opened in 1825 and had a powerful economic effect, Richards was inspired. He saw great potential for Red Hook,...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company in the early 1900s was headquartered at 116 Imlay Street, near the Atlantic Basin. The company, generally known as A&P, started in Manhattan in 1859 as a retailer of tea brought in by...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
In 1928, Joseph Stephens, an employee of Beard's Erie Basin, tripped on a winch handle, fell and hurt his arm. The State Industrial Board awarded him compensation for the days he was unable to work. Beard and the Travelers Insurance Company...
